History
Ettlingen was an important crossroads during Roman times, when the region was part of the province of Germania Superior. This is demonstrated by the many artifacts found in the area, including the "Neptune Stone," which commemorates a flood of the Rhine, and the remains of a Roman bath excavated beneath St. Martin's Church. The city was first mentioned in 788 as "Ediningom" in a deed of donation belonging to Wissembourg Abbey in Alsace (now in France). In 965, the village of Ettlingen ("Ediningom") received market rights (Marktrecht) from Emperor Otto the Great. In 1192, Emperor Henry VI, one of Frederick Barbarossa's sons. Margrave Herman V of Baden-Baden became Ettlingen's feudal lord in 1219. In the following centuries, Ettlingen developed into an important administrative center within the Margraviate of Baden-Baden.
During the Nine Years' War the city was nearly completely burned to the ground by the troops of Louis XIV, but was nevertheless rebuilt in the following decades under Margravine Sibylle Auguste. After the Catholic line of Baden-Baden died out in 1771, Ettlingen passed to the Protestant Margraviate of Baden-Durlach, which would become the reunited Margraviate of Baden. In the period of Napoleon's activities in Germany, Margrave Karl Friedrich of Baden was made Elector in 1806 and Grand Duke in 1806.
Ettlingen remained an independent city until 1937, when it was incorporated into the administrative unit that would become the district of Karlsruhe in 1939. Ettlingen and its surrounding villages and land has belonged to this district since then.
In 1966, Ettlingen passed the 20,000 population mark and raised to the status of Große Kreisstadt by the state government of Baden-Württemberg. During the communal reforms of the early 1970s, several smaller communities were incorporated into Ettlingen, raising the population to over 30,000. Ettlingen's renowned open-air theater series, the Schlossfestspiele first took the stage in the Baroque inner courtyard of Ettlingen Palace in 1979.
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